Trapeze Revamps Partner Program, Adds Distributor

The vendor also is expected to announce a distribution agreement with Alternative Technology, a $300 million specialty distributor acquired by Arrow Electronics last year.

Trapeze's biggest change in the program is the ability to get free training for system engineers and sales reps via the Web instead of on-site training at the vendor's Pleasanton, Calif., headquarters. That amounts to an estimated savings of more than $10,000 for two system engineers.

Jeffrey Rushin, owner and CEO of MaxImage Technologies, a Capitol Heights, Md.-based solution provider, estimated that he is saving $25,000 to $30,000 with the free, upfront training offering. MaxImage is training 10 engineers and three sales reps under the Trapeze program.

Rushin said that up until last November, MaxImage had been a Cisco systems and Linksys partner. He said he made the move to Trapeze in large part because of the vendor's RingMaster software planning tool, which slashes the time it takes to do wireless LAN planning and access point configuration and deployment.

"That tool just blows customers out of the water," said Rushin. "I can create an RF [radio frequency] plan from beginning to end with a work order. That tool is a mind blower. That is a phenomenal tool, and the interface is fantastic. I've been in the IT industry for 15 years and have never seen anything like it."

Rushin said he also appreciates that Trapeze isn't overdistributed, so he gets a 35 percent higher margin than when selling a Cisco Linksys solution.

"Cisco and Linksys are so saturated with VARs, we'd be competing with four or five VARs trying to get the same business," he said.

As for the deal registration program, Rushin said it prevents competitors from coming in with a low-ball, last-minute price quote on a deal that a partner has been working on for many months.

Steve Asche, Trapeze's director of channel marketing, said the new SmartMobile program is aimed at differentiating the channel offering from the pack of wireless LAN vendors that typically require upfront payment for training.

SmartMobile also eliminates the Silver tier, which required a $175,000 annual revenue commitment. The new program calls for a single Gold tier partner level, which requires an annual $300,000 revenue commitment.

As for the new upfront training via the Web, Asche said the response has been phenomenal. Trapeze trained 60 people during the seasonally difficult month of December and another 50 in February.

The new program comes with a fourfold increase this year in Trapeze demand-generation activities aimed at driving more leads to partners via events like webinars, according to Asche. He said Trapeze has also added new field-rep coverage as part of broad plan to increase its U.S. presence, rather than relying just on OEMs.

The Alternative Technology deal marks the third distribution partner that Trapeze has brought on board, along with Westcon and CTI.

"What's interesting about Alternative is the level of support they provide," Asche said. "I think that deal is going to be very important. We know their model is to focus on developing solutions. That really reasonated with us."

Currently, Trapeze has 55 Gold partners and 15 Silver partners, which the company will work to move to the Gold level, Asche said. Taking care not to overdistribute its product line, Trapeze plans to have a minimum of two VARs in each of the major metropolitan markets, with three or four in the larger areas, he said.

"We're not opening this up for anybody and everybody," Asche said. "At some point, someone will come to us and ask to be a VAR, and we'll say we already have coverage in that area."